Everything Must Go - How To Free Up Space On Your PS4

If you’re anything like us, then your PS4 is pretty much your premier entertainment hub. Sure, you might have other systems (shh, don’t tell Sony) but you do pretty much all of your gaming on your trusty PS4. And why wouldn’t you? The PS4 is sleek, powerful and capable. It’s the perfect machine for the serious gamer.

The thing is, though, the more gaming you do, the more your PS4’s hard drive will fill up, and eventually you’re going to run out of space. When that happens, you won’t be able to play a lot of disc-based games, as they often install data partially or completely to your hard drive, and you can say goodbye to downloading any more games from the PSN Store, as well as other media like movies or music.

All is not lost, though. Freeing up hard drive space on your PS4 is really simple. There are a number of options available to you if you’re nearing your storage limit. Here are a few simple tips and tricks for maximising your PS4’s storage potential, and for freeing up some space if you’re getting low.

Check your PS4’s remaining storage capacity

First off, you’ll want to know exactly how much space can still be used on your console. To do this, head over to your PS4’s Settings menu, then select “System Storage Management”. From here, you can see how much space remains on your system’s hard drive, as well as a breakdown of which applications, save data and other media are taking up the most space. Entering one of the memory categories here will provide you with a more detailed analysis of the most space-hungry games on your system.

Delete old games you’re not playing

Let’s face it: once FIFA 19 comes out, you’re not going to have much use for FIFA 18, right? With that in mind, your old copy of FIFA 18 is pretty much just dead space on your PS4 once you’re playing the newest instalment. It’s safe to delete games you aren’t going to play again, especially if you know you won’t be returning to them for whatever reason. If you do feel a burning desire to revisit FIFA 18, you can always redownload it from the store later (if it’s a digital copy, of course).

Delete your save games (and back them up)

If you’re a PlayStation Plus member, then you have access to Sony’s Cloud Storage feature, which allows you to back up a certain amount of your save data to the cloud. As such, you probably don’t need physical copies of those saves on your machine, especially if they’re for older games. If you absolutely do want to keep your saves, you can back them up to an external USB drive or HDD. Speaking of which…

Your PS4 supports USB hard drives, so they’re an excellent way to back up save data, movies and other space-consuming applications and media. You can also download games onto an external drive, although this will require a special formatting process. If you want to do this, you’ll need to go to Settings > Devices > USB Storage Devices, and select the drive you want to format. The option you’re looking for is “Format as extended storage”. Once you’ve done this, you can download PS4 games and apps onto the drive, although you’ll no longer be able to use it for screenshot storage or other media. You can always re-format the drive via Windows or PS4, though, so don’t fret. If you don’t want an external drive, then good news: the PS4’s internal drive can also be replaced with minimal hassle. Plump for a solid state drive (SSD) for fast load times and generally high performance.